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Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am the proud owner of a five-year-old Portulacaria afra. It was gifted to me by a bonsai master out of Hawaii. To be honest, as someone who has never taken care of plants, it has been a major struggle to learn. Such a fine balance between a thriving and dying plant. I'm just glad it seems I started off with a species so resilient.

Two things I need help with are:

1. Identifying why it looks to be struggling: is it the environment, overwatering, pets, or disease? Pictures below

2. What steps can I take to rectify these issues, and also some steps that may not be absolutely necessary but will promote size growth, better-looking leaves, and an overall healthier plant with plenty of room for growth? Repotting, pruning, new soil, fertilizer... I have no understanding of at what stage it is safe to do any of these things.

Please see my photos:

It is always hard to identify the reason for ill health based on a photo. If it was in my location and now I would say typical winter overwatering. One of the absolutely most common reason for ill health of jades.

But I do not know your location and conditions in winter. TBH I do not even know If you have winters or if it is winter now.

Jades are naturally adapted to winter draught and summer rains. There are a big difference In water needs in the two seasons.

Some leaf drop are expected in winter, if overwatered, it will be more severe. What I would do if it was my location and now is to cut watering totally until risk of frost is over and the tree can be moved outdoors. This do not look worse than recovery is possible.

Thanks for the response. This is a 100% indoor plant. Theres nowhere for me to put it outside. Also I live in Denver, CO so very dry winters. i would say that soil is completely dry after 12-14 days. i try watering only when the top 1-2 inch of soil is completely dry.

Hope this adds some context

I keep most of my jades outdoors with frost free overwintering. Out there they are kept bone dry for 4-5 months in winter. I do have a few indoors as well but they do not do at all as good as the outdoor ones. They are watered carefully with one to two months inbetween in winter depending on how much sunlight we get. I tend to move them outdoors every few years when they go leggy and bring in another one from outdoors. 100% indoor trees is just a big challenge and never as good as outdoors.

Hmm I wish i could do that. doubt its safe for me to put it outside in the winter very long. Temp is 62F right now but temp can drop to -10–20 degrees celsius fairly randomly. i was thinking about getting a fairly powerful led grow lamp as Ive learned, 90% of all wrongdoing with a port. is overwatering or not enough sunlight. any recomendations on an led grow lamp powerful enough to really help a port?

I do not do grow lights for bonsai or succulents. However I do for highland tropicals. There I use mars hydro SP300 and it is definetely enough for succulents toping at 800+ PPFD 30 cm from the light and 100 PPFD 1,5 meter away in my setup. .